Biblical Hebrew Forum

["David Stabnow" <dstabno AT lifeway.com>]

With the qere, it reads, )W-($YTY BNP&Y &QR ...

Most translations take the *sheqer* "lie" to be the soldier jeopardizing
himself: "And if I had put my life in jeopardy ..." (NIV)  "If I had
betrayed myself ..." (JPS)  This seems to be stretching the meaning of the
word.  They may be following the KJV (and NKJV similarly): "Otherwise I
should have wrought falsehood against mine own life ..."  But the KJV is
open to a different interpretation.  The "falsehood" is not against the
soldier, but against the king -- it is a reference to the violation of King
David's order to spare Absalom (see NLT: "And if I had betrayed the king
...").  To violate the king's command, when the king is so all-seeing,
would effectively be an action against (B- of disadvantage) the soldier's
*nephesh*.

That is, "Or, if I had committed -- against my own best interests -- this
insubordination ..."

Is this a tenable translation?

Dave Stabnow